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Article History

Received: 28 September 2024

Accepted: 29 July 2025

First Online: 7 August 2025

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Ethics Committee of Nanjing Normal University, on 21 June 2022 (IRB Number: NNU2022060054). The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki. Notably, the research did not entail medical procedures or human experimentation.

: Verbal informed consent was obtained from all 24 community-dwelling participants aged ≥60 during the data-collection period (1 December 2023-31 March 2024). Consent was sought and recorded by the first author and a trained research assistant immediately before each interview. Oral consent was chosen because several participants had limited literacy and local customs favor verbal agreements. Participants were fully informed of the study purpose, interview procedures, the anonymization of all personal data, the voluntary nature of participation, their right to withdraw at any time without consequence, and the minimal foreseeable risks. Consent covered participation in the interview, audio recording, secure storage of de-identified transcripts, and publication of aggregated findings. All participants were cognitively competent and provided consent independently; no proxy consent was required.